Why were the stairs in the towers of medieval castles twisted clockwise? Detailed answer

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Why were the stairs in the towers of medieval castles twisted clockwise? Detailed answer

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Why were the stairs in the towers of medieval castles twisted clockwise?

The spiral staircases in the towers of medieval castles were built in such a way that they were climbed in a clockwise direction. This was done so that in the event of a siege of the castle, the defenders of the tower would have an advantage during hand-to-hand combat, since the most powerful blow with the right hand can only be delivered from right to left, which was inaccessible to the attackers. However, if most of the men in the family were left-handed, then they built castles with a reverse twist - for example, the fortress of the Earls of Wallenstein in Germany or Fernyhurst Castle in Scotland.

Authors: Jimmy Wales, Larry Sanger

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Nanomaterial of molecules twisted simultaneously in opposite directions 21.09.2019

Many biomolecules have such a property as chirality: two molecules with exactly the same structure are mirror images of each other. The most striking example of chirality is our hands: the left mirrors the right and vice versa. Another example that we see in nature is the spiral of a shell, which can be twisted to the right or to the left. "Mirror" molecules with the same structure can have completely different properties. Conventionally, a molecule twisted in one direction smells like lemons, and when it rotates in the other direction, it smells like oranges.

The detection of these distortions is especially important in some industries such as pharmaceuticals, perfumes, food additives and pesticides. Recently, a new class of nanomaterials, plasmonic nanomaterials, has been developed that can help distinguish between the chirality of molecules. These nanomaterials enhance the chiral properties of molecules when exposed to light. They are usually made up of tiny twisted metal "wires" that are themselves chiral. However, the researchers ran into a difficulty: it became very difficult to distinguish between the twist of the nanomaterial itself and the swirl of the molecules whose properties were to be studied.

To solve this problem, a team from the Department of Physics at the University of Bath created a nanomaterial that twists in one direction and the other at the same time. This nanomaterial has the same number of molecules twisted in opposite directions, which means that they cancel each other out. Therefore, when interacting with laser beams, this material remains in its usual state, without showing the properties of chirality.

The team used a mathematical analysis of the material's symmetry properties and found several special cases that could reveal a "hidden" twist and allow detection of chirality in molecules with great precision.

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